Emotional eating...

I have this problem. When I get stressed or upset I want to eat everything in site. I've learned for me that it is more about the act of chewing. (I also clench my teeth.) For me it really helps if I grab a piece of gum. Others on here will say this will hurt you. But in my case, I’m not hungry or craving anything I just need to chew on something. If that doesn’t work another thing I do is make air popped popcorn. I can eat a lot of that without blowing my whole day. This helps me think about whether or not I'm really hungry or if I just want to chomp on something mindlessly. :laugh:

I'm the queen of emotional eating! The past year has been the most stressful of my life but I've managed to lose 70 pounds. The thing that helped me to avoid binging on cupcakes (my drug of choice), I eliminated most sugars from my diet and got an hour of cardio a day. The cardio (done with my favorite tunes blasting from my earbuds) was the key to dealing with all the stress. Music motivates me and the cardio brought down the anxiety.

I try to find something else to either distract me or make me feel better. Something like having a bath, having a hot cup of tea, going for a walk, doing some yoga, watching a film... none of these quite hit the spot the way eating did, but it's about learning different coping strategies. In the past I would have said that no way would having a bath take away food cravings, but with practise, it really does.

I also like the postponement strategy. I'll put off eating something for 5 minutes, or half an hour, or an hour, and tell myself that if I still want to eat then, I can. Often, the feeling has passed. In the meantime, I try to remind myself that whatever the reason that I'm feeling bad, eating isn't going to solve anything.

I also tend to pre-log something nice to eat for just before bed, whether a little bit of chocolate, a biscuit (cookie) or some chocolate milk. I do that most days just because I like to have something before bed, and I make sure it fits into my calorie goal and macros. It helps with the emotional eating because when I do feel like overeating, which is usually afternoon or early evening, I can try the other techniques and remind myself that I still have something nice left to eat later on. I don't always want it, but at least it's an option.

Emotions and stress are always going to be a part of life. Food is always going to be easily available (barring the apocalypse) and for some people, it's always going to be an effective way of soothing negative feelings. Just like alcohol, gambling, drugs, sex, cigarettes etc are for other people. So... we've somehow got to break the connection between feeling bad and eating to feel better. I tend to think that a big part of this is forming new habits. Consciously find other ways of coping, keep practising them, and it will get easier. (I hope!)

run . . . I walk out the door and run until my mind is clear . . . I run A LOT.

if running isn't an option I think about sex . . . I think about sex A LOT.

if I'm really having a bad day I think about sex while I run.

Take up smoking....


Just kidding. I have replaced my emotional eating with exercise. When I am most stressed I head for the gym or a run....

And my kids wonder why I am gone all the time...... LOL

I use to be a HUGE emotional eater... Huge... Up until a few months ago, it's the opposite. lol. I now put my attention into reading romance books and running my treadmill when I depressed or frustrated and boy has it paid off....

Water, walking, carrots, an entire cucumber. If it's really bad I'll try to find a pc of dark chocolate. I don't always win, sometimes I'll go to the vending machine and destroy a bag of M&Ms but today I had an apple instead.

When I am stressed, or even a little mopey - I bake. Which can be bad for me.

So if I'm really stressed or really mopey - I make myself clean things.

I like to run, but I'm not very good at it - but when I do run...I tend to think about sex. And money. And food. By the time I'm done, all the cravings are long gone.

well...the food ones anyways

These are all great tips, thanks for sharing them!

I have major issues with emotional eating. I'd say that 50% of the time I eat, it's emotional. :noway:

Sometimes when I want to overeat and I'm home alone and bored, I will drink some tea and play some solitaire. Real solitaire, with a real deck of cards. I don't want to ruin my good cards, so I don't eat.

It works to distract me sometimes.

So, I went through this not even an hour ago. I had an overwhelming desire to eat junk food. My mom is having surgery right now for cancer, and I cant be there with her cause she is out of town visiting her father (they just found the cancer a week-ish ago) and then Yesterday we found out that her house was robbed by her "friends" who were suppose to be watching her cat, they stole everything including her fridge. I was feeling very sad a little while ago, I hate not being able to be there and I feel helpless that all her things were stolen-when she already is going through so much.

So, what I did to stop from emotional eating-I posted a status on MFP saying I was having a hard day and my friends said a lot of encouraging things. Also, I did eat (it was lunch time anyways) had a slice a turkey, a hard boiled egg, a piece of cheese-that killed all the cravings I was having. Also, going for a walk usually helps me as well or housework. Housework is what I am gonna do now, to keep my mind off of things.

Good luck!! :flowerforyou:

EDIT-I also drank a bottle of water that equals 3.5 glasses of water-that also really helped!!

I'm prone to this as well but I've found since I started using MFP it hasn't been as bad-I log my food before I eat it (breakfast, lunch and dinner all in the morning) so I know how much wiggle room I have. Granted I still give into the eating at times but it's not as bad and it'll only be something like one candy bar or 1/2 cup of ice cream when before it'd be more. (If I do give in, I log it as soon as I'm done....sometimes I even log it before I eat it and it's enough to stop me)

I am very prone to emotional eating. When I manage to resist, it's typically because I followed a couple of steps. When the eating urge that I know is emotional kicks in, here's what I do.

1. Drink a glass of water, wait 5 minutes. Am I still feeling like eating? If yes, then,

2. Go for a walk. Doesn't have to be a long one. Around the block. Around the halls at work. Still wanting to eat? If yes, then,

3. Chew a piece of gum. Like Anniel88, sometimes having my mouth chewing solves the problem.

If I'm still having a craving I know is emotional, I'll tend to repeat those steps until it passes or I break. I would say at least 60% of the time, I can get past it. Which is better than my previous rate of giving in 100% of the time.

This!!! I am with you completely- I lose it sometimes and to make matters worse, my husband is even more of an emotional eater than I am!!! So we trigger each other. thank you for this advise. I will try this next time.